Residents rally for couple who lost home

ALREADY the Walkerston community have banded together to help support the Benson family who lost their home to fire last night.

A Facebook page, Bensons Brigade, has more than 200 people liking the page to show their support.

The fire on Kellys Rd quickly engulfed the building, and neighbours were worried it would spread.

Rebecca Clarke's heart "sank" when she pulled into her street just after 8pm last night, with a fire truck on her tail.

The mother of four was faced with an unexpected turn to a 20-minute drive to "pick up the kids", when she returned to see thick flames and black smoke protruding from the side of her house.

Ms Clarke said she pulled over in a panic and sprinted to retrieve her partner and two other children from inside.

However, as she approached the ordeal, Ms Clarke realised that it was not her house alight. It was her neighbours.

"My gut just went 'oh my god please don't come this way' because if it did my house would have gone up just as quick," she said. "The only thing between us is a timber fence and all I could do was panic.

"We've got our gas bottle on that side, so if it would have come over my house would have exploded."

Ms Clarke said she had been living next door to the couple, Steve and Amanda Benson, for five years.

She said the Bensons' dogs, two red kelpies, went missing at the time of the fire but were found safe latter that night.

"It's always been a fear that the block across the road would actually catch fire, because in the drought it's just dry and dead," Ms Clarke said. "I would even expect to see someone get hit by a car, with the amount of silly drivers around here, more than seeing something like this.

"You always see fires on TV, but you don't realise how scary one is until it happens close to home."

INITIAL

Fire fighters attended a house fire at Walkerston last night.

Four Queensland Fire & Rescue crews were called to the fire about 8pm.